Pingman Tools News

Version 5.4 is a pleasant serving of PingPlotter progression. Support for 64-bit architecture improves performance for Windows users. You'll also notice more detail about current focus time and a smoother import/export experience. Professional edition users get the added bonus of new summary screen controls and a setting that makes it easier to identify jitter above or below a certain level. There is, of course, more to discover in the latest release. Check the notes for macOS or Windows for all the details.

This upgrade is free for customers with active maintenance. If your license's maintenance is expired, all it takes is a quick trip to your account to get reactivated. When maintenance is up to date, you can get 5.4 from the download page, or by following the in-program prompt.

A new PingPlotter beta just became available, and we'd really appreciate your help testing.

This beta includes two new features. Network Discovery lets you see all of the devices connected to your local network, and Dynamic DNS helps you stay connected to targets during IP address changes from DNS servers (handy in long-term monitoring). Visit the beta page for download instructions and more details on how to participate.

Beta testing is complete for PingPlotter's macOS version. Big thanks to everyone who participated! The product wouldn't be where it is without your testing and feedback.

Jitter graphs, UDP packets, remote agent, and web interface are new in this release. The latest version is available on the download page. If you've already installed the beta, you can also upgrade through the notification that appears when you run PingPlotter.

Free trials are available, and active maintenance customers get access to PingPlotter on any platform. That includes macOS, iOS, Windows, and whatever releases in the future.

A PingPlotter iOS update released today. This version includes better IPv6 tracing and several miscellaneous improvements.

Downloads are available on the App Store, and additional features are available through in-app purchase or active maintenance plans. If you are a PingPlotter customer with active maintenance, follow these instructions to enable the in-app purchase.

An official PingPlotter macOS release is closer than ever! Mac Preview just graduated to Beta. We'd be grateful if you tried the new build and let us know how it works. Please share your feedback with beta@pingplotter.com.

Multiple targets, comments, alerts, and sharing are all new in this version. The beta also supports Free, Standard, and Professional Editions. Check out the macOS page for details.

This round of beta testing is open to everyone. Free 14 day trials are available on the download page. If you have active PingPlotter maintenance, you can run Standard or Professional edition with your license key.

The latest update helps network troubleshooting suck a little less with a new sharing feature and improvements to PingPlotter's core superpowers.

Sharing is available in all PingPlotter editions. It only takes a few clicks to put your PingPlotter test results (screenshot and data file) online in a place that makes it easy to download the data on another device or show a network problem to someone you are working with.

The new release also includes improvements related to handling large target lists, live sorting, and jitter graphs. Check out the release notes for the details.

If your PingPlotter 5 experience has been muddled by interface freezes, slow load times, or memory issues, this is the release for you. We've adjusted some PingPlotter innards, and everything runs more efficiently. Especially when multiple targets are involved!

The downside of changing PingPlotter's core is unintended consequences. Those may or may not exist, and that uncertainty is why you're seeing a "beta label" instead of an "official release' stamp. We do know this build performs better than any Version 5 before it. It's loaded with improvements, and if you can handle some unknown, we'd totally appreciate your help testing the build. Email beta@pingplotter.com to let us know how it goes. Thanks for the help!

Making network troubleshooting suck less. That's why PingPlotter exists. The tool has been making that happen since it started graphing pings in the late 90's. It's come a long way, but there's always room for improvement. Some users were having trouble managing alerts. Others needed easier long-term monitoring or a Windows Service that was less of a hassle. Today we're proudly announcing a new version that addresses these issues and more.

PingPlotter 5 is completely reengineered for a better experience. It includes a friendlier alert system and a Windows Service that just works. Setting up long-term monitoring is a thing of the past too. In Version 5, all it takes to trace indefinitely is a click of a button. You'll also find more precise (sub-millisecond) latency measurements and an interface that's easier on the eyes. As usual, there's more. All the details are on the announcement page, and if you're interested in an inside perspective on the project, a letter from Pingman Tools' founder is available in the release notes.

A PingPlotter that does more work for you is an exciting step toward better network troubleshooting. We're grateful for all the support so far. Thanks for riding along!

PingPlotter's next version targets big opportunities. Architectural stuff that resolves long standing issues **cough** Running in Session 0 and lays foundation for making network troubleshooting suck even less. It's no small undertaking, but the results are exceptional core functionality improvements. Version 5 is designed to ask less from you, to do more for you, and to let you be more specific about its operation. Oh and don't worry. You'll find some new features in there too.

A sneak peak is available free to PingPlotter license owners with active maintenance. If that isn't you, new licenses come with a year of free maintenance. Maintenance for existing licenses can also be renewed from your account.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the beta. Outside perspective helps build a better PingPlotter, and we are grateful to hear your input. If you're interested in participating, check out the beta page for more information about downloading and what to expect in the release.

You may have already caught inklings of us reengineering a stronger, faster, PingPlotter. We're calling the project Xerek, but you might know it better as PingPlotter iOS or Mac Preview. If you've experienced the awesome of those tools, surprise! You've already touched Xerek's primordial ooze. There's a lot more on the way too. Here a few things we're working on for the first Windows Xerek release.

Handling samples and auto-saving in a way that basically let's you trace forever

Effortless experiences for alert management and summary screens

A Windows service that works the way you (and we) always thought it should

And of course, so much more!

It's gonna be a helluva ride. We can't wait to unleash PingPlotter 5 on the world. In the meantime, check out the latest Mac Preview. Date sensitivity and a couple other bugs are fixed. Overall, we're pretty happy with how PingPlotter OS X is working. We've heard positive feedback and are using it regularly around the office. The only reason we're calling it a preview is because it's not as feature rich as its Windows predecessor, but that's all going to change soon.

The first PingPlotter point release of 2016 focuses mostly on bug fixing. If you've run into "______ out of range" errors in the past, there's a good chance you won't see them anymore. Make sure to say your goodbyes before updating to the new version.

Details about other issues addressed by v4.12 and information about how to include named configuration titles in screenshots are available in the release notes.

We've received a ton of great feedback about PingPlotter Mac Preview. Everyone who shared their two cents helped us learn a ton about how the tool works out "in the wild" - Thanks!

PingPlotter Mac Preview's latest release incorporates some of the feedback. It also includes lots of under the hood refinement and an auto-update feature. The new version is available free and includes a 30 day trial of upgrade features. Visit the announcement page for downloads and more information.

For the latest PingPlotter release, UDP packet support got a lot of love and the result is significantly more powerful. In version 4.11 you get automatic firewall configuration, removal of admin user requirement, and a pile of squashed bugs that make UDP packets more reliable and easier to set up. You'll also find some usability tweaks, improvements to route change logic, and a streamlined update process in the new version. Check out the announcement page for more information.

If you're the kind of troubleshooter who wants Rick Astley to remind them who's "never gonna let them down" when a target needs attention, the new MultiPing release can help you make that happen. Version 3.2 alerts with MP3 files and adds an "Add Comment to Timeline Graph" alert event along with a handful of sample alerts that can be copied and modified as you need. Visit the announcement page for more detail about the latest version.

Everything required to "See the Network, Pinpoint the Problem" is included in the new PingPlotter Mac Preview. Anyone interested in peeking at the future of the OS X platform is free to trial for thirty days or run free mode as long as they like. License owners can upgrade this, and future, releases (even the imminent official release) as long as their maintenance is active. Check out the announcement page for downloads and more information about Preview #3.

Alerts received a revamp in PingPlotter 4.1. This version includes new event options, easier email setup, and "Sample" alerts that can be copied and modified as needed. Several bug fixes and miscellaneous improvements are also contained in the release along with support for an upcoming subscription option for customers who prefer to pay as they go. More details about the latest version are available on the release notes page.

2015-10-07 PingPlotter graphs contain hoards of information, but the interesting bits are easily overlooked when you aren't sure what to focus on. If you're looking at your traces wondering "What the?", our latest tutorial video can help you out. Analyzing PingPlotter Data demonstrates some patterns to look for when trying to pinpoint network problems.

A year or so ago we abandoned the dream of cross-compiling PingPlotter v3 onto Mac in favor of a ground up rewrite. This decision set back PingPlotter Mac's release date, but the result is a stronger base from which this and future platforms (like the recent iOS release) can emerge. Today, we're excited to invite you to run a preview!

PingPlotter for OS X - Preview Edition is available to PingPlotter (Standard or Pro) license owners on active maintenance through the account system.

We think the new Mac build is awesome, but the preview has some ground to cover as far as features go. If you're using the the old version, there are a few reasons why you might hold off on an upgrade. Find more details on the Pingman Tools Forum.

Time in the wild identified several improvement opportunities for PingPlotter v4. The latest version capitalizes on many of those opportunities and includes several enhancements related to graph painting speed, web interface, and summary screens. v4.01.1 also loads MultiPing v3 workspaces, hides text on packet loss bars, and squashes a handful of bugs.

The latest MultiPing release improves performance (it's reasonable to always sort now), tweaks the GUI a bit, and contains a handful of miscellaneous fixes based on user requests. Customers on active maintenance can update to the new version for no charge, and more information is available on the release notes page. Downloads are available in the account system and multiping.com.

In other news, we've ventured into uncharted territory. The App Store is currently reviewing PingPlotter Mobile. We aren't sure how long the process will take, but we're eagerly awaiting approval and plan on releasing as soon as possible.

Several PingPlotter users have been requesting tutorial videos lately. We think that's a splendid idea, and just uploaded the first video in the PingPlotter Tutorial series - "Getting Started Quickly".

This video visualizes several concepts covered by in the "Getting Started Guide", and you can find it on the newly constructed Pingman Tools Youtube Channel.

If you've been thinking "Wow, PingPlotter or MultiPing REST alert events sure sound interesting, but what should I do with them?", integrating alerts with Slack or HipChat is an excellent first project. So excellent, we just published a couple articles that explain how to post messages to Slack/Hipchat rooms with REST alert events.

In order to accommodate some new features (IPv6 compatibility, unicode support, etc), PingPlotter v4 creates .pp2 files that, by default, cannot be opened by any 3.x version of PingPlotter. If you're getting hit with a "That file was created with a newer version of PingPlotter" message - don't worry, we've got a solution for you!

Today is an exciting day at Pingman HQ! The release of PingPlotter v4 is finally upon us! Years of code writing, beta testing, and bug fixing have forged a dramatically enhanced version of PingPlotter. We are pleased to make this new version available to network troubleshooters across the globe.

Hundreds of tweaks, upgrades, and bug fixes went into the new PingPlotter, and the result is a better tool for network troubleshooters of all abilities. PingPlotter Professional adds multi-target management tools like custom groups, multi-select actions, searchable lists, and hidable tabs. Standard's capacity is doubled with support for two simultaneous targets, and Free edition includes a ten minute history graph for better insight into time related problems. All editions now support IPv6 pinging, and unicode characters are enabled in comments, names, and elsewhere.

Beyond new capabilities, v4 features a redesigned interface and a single download for all editions. PingPlotter's fresh look brings new icons and colors along with some control rearrangement to help get more done in fewer clicks. Serving all editions with a single download helps us to better manage our code, while making it easier for new users to evaluate the product. The change also empowers license owners to see the network as a Free user in case they need to do so.

New users can start their free 30 day trial on the download page. Current license owners are encouraged to download custom (license key embedded) builds from the account system. This is a free upgrade for license owners with active maintenance. Customers with expired maintenance can purchase upgrades in the account system. Check your email or in program update notice for information about special upgrade pricing. More information about the release is available on the announcement page.

A new version of MultiPing is hot off the griddle and available for download.

The most noticeable enhancements in v3.1 relate to the interface. We've added new graphics, improved visual cues, and made colors friendlier. When you run, you'll also meet an interactive welcome screen that connects with MultiPing information you may not be aware of.

New capabilities in this release include unicode support and HTML formatted alert emails. Unicode support enables tracing for non-English urls and lets you use Mandarin, Cyrillic, or even #%$&@ in comments, names, and elsewhere. HTML formatted alert emails provide an additional level of control to ensure messages communicate exactly the way you want them to. Other than those, v3.1 includes some under the hood related upgrades like a new compiler version and a handful of bug fixes.

This is a free upgrade for customers with active maintenance and a $19.99 upgrade for customers with expired maintenance. License owners can check maintenance status and download custom builds (embedded license key) in the account system. More information about the release is available on the announcement page.

PingPlotter v4 officially releases in April, but a beta version is available to license owners interested in helping us test. Simply login to your account to download.

Version 4 improvements focus on usability and performance. A refreshed interface helps get more done with fewer clicks and hundreds of small tweaks, upgrades, and bug fixes significantly improve speed and reliability. New alert options like REST calls and HTML formatted emails are available along with IPv6 and unicode character support. Professional edition adds several new tools for managing large target lists like user-defined groups, searchable lists, and multiple summary screens.

This is also the first release to serve three editions of PingPlotter with a single download. The shift won't make a big difference to license owners because the program runs as the edition associated with the license. Changing how versions work helps new users evaluate PingPlotter and improves the way we manage our code.

More information about the release is available here. Please, share your beta feedback (we love feedback!) by emailing beta@pingplotter.com.

Nobody notices the network until something goes wrong. That's why network troubleshooting sucks. As soon as something gets fixed, the people hounding you about "when will we back online?" disappear. It's a thankless endeavor, but the world couldn't function the way it does without people willing to carry the torch. At Pingman Tools, we understand your difficulties and want to make the network troubleshooting process suck a little less. To make that happen, we are building new tools to help you keep networks in check. Here's a preview of what's to come.

The upcoming PingPlotter 4 release includes a streamlined interface, IPv6, Unicode, better multi-target capabilities, ease of use features and a whole lot more. We'll also be expanding the well-received account system from MultiPing into PingPlotter (allowing you to download custom builds with you license key embedded, easily add more licenses to a single key, priority support, and more).

Concurrent with the release of PingPlotter 4, we're working on the next big thing (for us), which starts by extending to new platforms like iOS, Android and Mac, plus a lot more network troubleshooting wisdom (during our 18 years of business, we've learned a bit and would love to have our tools take some of that wisdom and use it to help make you more powerful). Having a new cross-platform code base also puts us in a better position to offer new functionality and better performance, and built in wisdom means more network troubleshooting automation for faster solutions. Altogether our roadmap for the future leads to a world where network troubleshooting is easier for everyone. We hope you are as excited as we are about it!

In our vision, our tools help you be the superhero. Network problems are solvable.

Pingman Tools provides the critical structure required to pursue our passion, continually enhance products, and make network troubleshooting easier for everyone. We may play a few extra rounds of Left 4 Dead (or sip a few rounds from Pingman tumblers) every now and then, but our core values and leadership remain unchanged as the team grows along with the vision.

Check out the about us page for more information about Pingman Tools. If any questions or comments come up while you get to know our new brand, we'd love to hear from you at info@pingman.com.

A few months ago PingPlotter.com left it's comfort zone in search of a less turn-of-the-millennium feel.

In the spirit of iterative development, we landed on this short-lived (but beautiful in it's own way) proof of concept.

After much CSS slaying (and possibly hair loss), we made it to the pingplotter.com design you see today.

We are excited to share our new site with the world. This design is the result of months of planning and collaboration. Special thanks to J. and Mirko, the design junkies from Valitics. Hopefully you find everything more useful and easier to discover. This new look and feel is one small component of a greater effort to make network troubleshooting easier, faster, more effective, and fun. Stay tuned for future developments.

2014-08-29 We've been fervently revamping our company, and are happy to release the next fruits of that labor. MultiPing.com (and MultiPing V3) was the first big release, and the new logos and design you see here are phase one of PingPlotter's overhaul. As developments continue, we'll be rolling out more exciting changes.

Check back soon for additional website enhancements, new version releases, and other fun.

2014-08-29 After a vigorous design phase, PingPlotter.com is delightedly showcasing new PingPlotter logos! If you look closely, you'll find allusions to PingPlotter's past, symbolisms of speed, and a big P (for PingPlotter). At first, logos will only be found on the website, but as the PingPlotter refresh commences, expect to see the logos showcased in new version releases.

2014-02-19 Are you currently looking for guidance on how to solve a network issue? We have it!

Our newly developed Roadmap to Network Nirvana guide and worksheet will walk you through troubleshooting your network, pinpointing the problem, collecting the data you need, and navigating your ISP's support organization in the fastest and most effective way we know how.

If you have thoughts on this article (suggestions for improvements, filled out worksheets you don't mind sharing with others, success stories), please let us know!

We just released version 3.30.1 for PingPlotter Standard and Pro. It's a minor release, but fixes a couple of nagging bugs, adds a new graph metric, and solves some false positive virus warnings (which AVG has since fixed on their side too, but ... oh well)!

2008-06-08 We're going to be upgrading our servers at midnight GMT on Tuesday, June 10th, so our systems will be mostly unavailable from 00:15 GMT till about 01:00 GMT or so (if things go well). During this time, we'll have no email or web access, so you'll just have to "hold tight" if you need any help from us.

Missing or wrong DNS names now use a more friendly "Balloon" popup rather than a full error dialog.

Fixed right-click popup menu on edit controls.

DNS Name and Graph columns now get their widths remembered on close/restart.

Fixed STARTTLS (e.g., Gmail) SMTP alerts.

More...

These upgrades are free for anyone with a corresponding license (Standard licensees get the Standard edition, Pro licensees get the Pro edition). You can also take this opportunity to upgrade your Standard license(s) to Pro using our upgrade page.

These upgrades are free for anyone with a corresponding license (Standard licensees get the Standard edition, Pro licensees get the Pro edition). You can also take this opportunity to upgrade your Standard license(s) to Pro using our upgrade page.

2007-01-29 Windows Vista is being released tomorrow, and you might be wondering if PingPlotter (Standard and Pro) and MultiPing will work with Vista. The answer to this is "Yes!", but there are a few things that aren't quite perfect. If you're having problems with Vista, or you're just interested in checking compatibility, we've created a knowledge base article that covers this.

The MultiPing update can be installed on top of any currently installed version, without uninstalling it first (although you will need to close MultiPing, if it's currently running). All licensed users of MultiPing 1.x or 2.x get a free upgrade to this version, and your existing license key will be used - there is no need to reenter.

2006-01-26 We recently wrote a guide on how to troubleshoot your Voice over IP connection using PingPlotter. This has a bunch of examples, interpretations of results, plus other guidance (much of which is helpful beyond the VoIP domain). Check it out at here.

We also added a search engine to our PingPlotter.com and Nessoft.com sites. Each page has a search box for easy availability, or you can access it at http://www.nessoft.com/search.html. The search engine indexes the Nessoft.com site, the PingPlotter.com site, all of our forum posts, knowledge base articles and the Getting Started Guide.

2005-12-15 We found a problem with the Trial version of PingPlotter Pro recently released, so we've released a new version that addresses only this problem - 3.00.1p. If you're a licensed user, you will notice no differences in this version. If you previously downloaded the 3.00 trial and you're wondering why it doesn't have some of the advertised features, update to this version.

In addition, we're having some reports of people having problems when running a CPU with DEP built in *and* with it enabled in their operating system (Windows XP or Windows 2003 server only). If you're getting access violations when starting PingPlotter Pro, and there's no way to trace to a target, then try adding an exclusion for PingPlotter Pro in your DEP protection settings.

PingPlotter Pro is not a replacement for PingPlotter standard. We are currently working on a new version 3.0 of PingPlotter standard (the next release of the existing 2.60 version). When that releases, all current owners of PingPlotter 2.x will get a free upgrade to that version.

2005-02-23 Congratulations to James Gentry Jr., the second and final winner of our customer testimonial contest! James has won himself not just a measly t-shirt, but a fine Polo shirt with the Nessoft logo finely stitched on the front. If that weren't enough, it also has the Nessoft slogan "See the Network, Pinpoint the Problem" on the sleeve. Suitable for any occasion, we're talking one nice shirt here...

Got a story to share about PingPlotter or MultiPing? Send it to us and we'll put it up on our Testimonial page. If it really wows us - you too could win some fine Nessoft swag!

As always, we welcome any feedback you may have in regards to the Tutorial in general, as well as feedback on any specific problems you may have solved using PingPlotter, or it's sister product MultiPing. If you have any specific topics you'd like covered within the Tutorial, please pass them along. Any of the above can be sent to support@nessoft.com.

The MultiPing update can be installed on top of any currently installed version (no need to uninstall). All licensed users get a free upgrade to the latest versions, and your existing license key will be used - there is no need to reenter.

The updates for either program can be installed on top of any currently installed version (no need to uninstall). All licensed users get a free upgrade to the latest versions, and your existing license key will be used - there is no need to reenter.

2004-05-26 Version 2.51 of PingPlotter is complete and available to download for all licensed users, and those wanting to evaluate it.

This release adds support for sending alerts to an email server secured by SMTP AUTH, route change logic improvements, and a variety of other features and bug fixes. For full details of what's included in this release, see the release notes.

If you already have a previous version of PingPlotter installed, there is no need to uninstall it first, you can just install this on top of that version. If you've licened PingPlotter, your existing license key will be used - there is no need to reenter.

There are a few interesting features and changes in this release. One of the primary new features is the ability to do a traceroute using UDP, rather than ICMP. Some ISPs have started blocking (or limiting) ICMP packets, and UDP packets work in some of these situations.

Another interesting change in this release is an integration between MultiPing (version 1.01 and higher) and PingPlotter. From MultiPing, you can right-click on a target and send the data to PingPlotter for analysis, or you can open PingPlotter and start tracing right from MultiPing.

2004-03-08 MultiPing 1.01 offers a number of improvements and fixes based on customer feedback over the last couple of months. We'd like to thank everyone who helped us track down some of these problems and who offered helpful suggestions.

This is a free upgrade for anyone with a MultiPing license, and will upgrade any previous versions of MultiPing.

2004-02-02 We just rolled out a new graphic design for the PingPlotter.com site. We also took this opportunity to clean up a number of old graphics and html pages that have been cluttering the place up.

We do have a few changes left to make, but everything should work and should look good in the new format.

If you find any problems (ie: broken links, poorly displayed pages, etc.), or if you have any comments about the new design (either good or bad), please email webmaster@pingplotter.com.

2004-01-30 We've had several people complain of not getting emails from us over the last few days. If you're not receiving a response to your email to us, there are several likely reasons for this, including:

Spam / virus filtering on your email system.

Load on the internet email system due to recent virus activity causing slow delivery.

One of the real challenges here is that you may not be getting email from us because something is blocking these emails - and this gives us no way to communicate with you to try and troubleshoot the problem.

Something important to note is that all of the Nessoft sales and support email addresses get logged in an automated system which confirms receipt of initial emails. This means that whenever you send us an email about a new topic (as opposed to replying to an email from us that you already received), our system will email you immediately with a confirmation. If you're not getting that confirmation, then you're likely not going to get our replies either. If you want to make sure we're getting your email, you can try submitting a new ticket via our online support system.

If our email to you is blocked from some reason, make sure you check your spam filter. With spam becoming more and more prevelant, spam filtering is becoming more aggressive. Sometimes, spam filters will incorrectly categorize an email and file it as spam. It's possible that *any* emails may be subject to this problem, including emails from us. If you're not getting emails from us, please check your spam filters.

If you don't receive a confirmation email from us in a reasonable period of time (we send it immediately, but it may take a bit of time to make it back to your system), you might also try contacting us via an alternate email account. Another option is to post your problem on our public forums and we can communicate that way.

2003-12-20 MultiPing version 1.0 has been released! Visit the MultiPing site for details on this new product, or go directly to the download page if you participated in our beta program.

We would like to thank all of our beta testers and everyone who gave us feedback that made MultiPing what it is today. In particular, we want to thank Larry Marchman for his suggestions from day one, and all his great bug reporting over the development cycle of MultiPing. Larry was really key in the development of MultiPing. Thank you!

As this is a 1.0 release, we expect to do continued development based on your feedback. Send your feedback to support@multiping.com.

2003-09-05 The Ping Plotter tutorial has been updated to reflect all the changes in the latest version of the trialware product - Version 2.41. Because we're all about service here at Nessoft, we've also updated the PDF version. The tutorial is continually being updated and has some good information, so we suggest you check it out. A direct link is located off of the support section of our site, along with a link to the message boards (which are also a great source of information). As always, if you see any errors or suggestions please pass them along.

The patent Unisys had on the LZW compression algorithm, and subsequently the GIF graphic format, expired on June 20th, 2003 (yup, just over a week ago folks). Being the proactive folks we are, Ping Plotter now supports the saving of graphs as GIF images, as well as the previously available formats - PNG (which we recommend you use) and BMP.

If you're interested in the list of changes that made it into this release, check the revision history.

2003-03-10 A new version of Ping Plotter has left beta testing and is now available to everyone. We'd like to thank all of our great beta testers for their comments, feedback, and suggestions.

Here is a really short list of some of the new things in this release. See the revision history for a more complete list.

Version 2.40 has these following new features and bug fixes (since 2.30.1):

Complete re-write of internal engines. Allows some capabilities in this version and lots of cool stuff in the future. Big performance and reliability benefits in the 2.40 release.

Major re-write of alert system. Can now notify when a condition starts, when it ends, or as it is happening. Added the ability to launch an EXE when a condition occurs, and can also change the tray icon or show a message in the tray.

Annotations can be tied to a point in the time graph to show notes. These get saved in all images.

Save files format was changed and now takes up only 5-15% of what it used to (much of this is due to new internal compression).

Can now "Copy as summary text" - shows packet loss % / min/max, etc instead of only showing all the raw data.

Can do some annotation of an IP address in the history window so you can recognize what an IP was for (ie: enter an address of "10.0.0.1 My_Router" will auto-resolve 10.0.0.1 to "My_Router" even if not in a hosts table).

Double-clicking on a hop number now shows/hides the time graph for that hop.

2003-03-08 We're preparing for our 2.40 version release, and are planning to do a mailing to all our licensed users to announce that release. Before doing so, it seemed appropriate to share our privacy policy. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

2002-09-25 The Tutorial and FAQ have been updated. Of particular interest to some may be the information located in the FAQ on diagnosing problems with asynchronous routes. As always, if you see any errors or suggestions please pass them along.

Totally not networking related but... For the past couple of years we've helped sponsor a local stock car here in Boise, Idaho. The end of the season was 9/21/02, and the PingPlotter car (though we're not the sole sponsor...it's the PingPlotter car anyway *grin*) took 9th out of 25 total cars in the class. Congratulations Scott! To check out the Murri Racing site, and see some pictures of the car, you can go to the Murri Racing home page.

The tutorial has been converted into a PDF file for those of you that would like to print a copy. The web version is being updated constantly, so please check there first with any questions. There will always be a little lag between the web version and the updating of the Acrobat version, but we'll be doing our best to keep both versions in sync.

We've cleaned up the FAQ. If you've been in there before looking something up, unfortunately it was quite unwieldy (uh, in short it was a mess). As always, if you have comments, suggestions or gripes please drop us a line.

We've been seeing some notable press mentions for the shareware version of Ping Plotter lately. We were in Lockernome last month, University of Oregon's Computing News for Fall 2001, the September edition of Law Technology News and the December edition of Windows 2000 Magazine. Pretty cool stuff.

Since the release of the shareware version of Ping Plotter (in 1998), we've not done any updates for the freeware version. This has now changed, however, with the release of Ping Plotter version 1.10 Freeware.

The new freeware version sports a significant re-engineer of its internals, bringing it up to date with the shareware version. There have also been a few handy new features added.

The next release of Ping Plotter is now available. Download the shareware version, or update your registered version at the Ping Plotter Download Site.

Version 2.30 has the following new features and bug fixes (since 2.20):

The timeline graphs now show packet loss percentages. This adds information to time periods greater than a few hours (where it used to just show that there was at least one packet lost), and can help show trending quite a bit better. If you prefer the old style graphs, hold down the shift key while right clicking on a timeline graph and enable "Old style timeline graphs".

Packet loss percentages can now be shown on the upper graph.

Added ability to turn on/off min/max lines on the upper graph. This can help during long term monitoring where a single bad response could change the scale of the entire graph.

The lower timeline graphs can now be scrolled using ALT-LEFT, ALT-RIGHT, ALT-HOME, ALT-END, ALT-PGUP, ALT-PGDN. These keys work when the upper graph is selected (because the lower graphs don't actually accept focus). Clicking on the lower graph will focus the upper graph.

The lower timeline graphs now resize based on their current size when adding a new graph - rather than resizing to 65 pixels always.

Added an option to use high performance timers when tracing. This increases the accuracy when using Windows NT/2000 - where the best accuracy reported by ICMP.DLL is 10 ms.

Added ARIN Block IP lookups to see who owns an IP address. This works even if the IP doesn't resolve to a name.

All Open/Save dialogs have been updated to have the "Places" bar for Windows 2000/ME users.

Added automatic version checking. Ping Plotter will now check to see if there's an update available and let you know if there is.

Added support for multiple INI files. This is useful when you automatically start multiple instances of Ping Plotter and want the output to be different between instances.

Added "zooming" logic so when you decrease the time shown in the timeline graph it tries to keep your selected time period in focus. This can be useful to focus in on a period in the 48 hour graph, and then zoom down to the 30 minute (or similar) graph to see the period in more detail.

Changed the alert system to no longer use averages. Averages were hard to understand in the context of lost packets, and in all cases we reviewed, the alternate method was superior.

Added ability to change the Subject line in alert e-mail messages. $host can be included to show the final destination.

Exporting to text files was substantially improved.

Can ping only the final destination (rather than tracing all hops between you and the final destination). While this turns off some of the core functionality of Ping Plotter, it can be handy if you're using alerts, or only want to graph performance to the final destination and don’t want to use the extra bandwidth required to trace the intermediate hops

Registration codes are now validate against a server database. See here for more details on this.

John Gillett posted a really good article about Ping and Trace Route for Speedcorp.net. It has some great theory - and talks about Ping Plotter as well. It's a pretty good read - so if you're curious about how Ping, Trace Route, and Ping Plotter do their thing, you might check out that article!

Note added December, 2003: Speedcorp.net seems to be defunct now. Planetquake republished the article, which is what is linked above.

Version 2.2 (available in the download section) has the following new features:

Route changes are now handled, and all history is stored with the route that it was recorded on. This means you can see that your ISP (or someone in the route) changed the route to correct a problem (or make things worse!). Ping Plotter keeps track of all the routes for as long as you like. Additionally, certain route changes can be excluded so normal changes aren’t flagged or logged.

You're now able to specify the maximum number of samples you want to keep in memory. This will allow tracing sessions of unlimited length (you'll no longer run out of memory after 2 weeks of hard non-stop tracing).

You can now "Save as Image" (instead of having to copy it to the clipboard and use another application to make the image). Supported file formats are .PNG and .BMP. (Before you ask: JPG is way too lossy for concise text/line based graphics, and GIF is owned by Unisys and requires a license to deploy).

You can now schedule your data to be automatically saved (at interval). The file name can include any portion of the date/time plus the host name so you can keep nice history files (use this with the maximum in-memory sample count to keep data around forever)

You can now schedule an image to be automatically saved (at interval). You might use this to keep an intranet page current, just keep nice images of history. These can be saved in PNG or BMP format.

Double clicking an entry in the history list now automatically starts tracing to that address.

Trace name/address now shows on taskbar title to distinguish multiple running copies.

The .PPS file extension has been retired in favor of .PP2. Microsoft PowerPoint used the PPS extension, and in cases like this, they win. This extension can be overridden manually in your .INI file as well if you find that .PP2 interferes with some application youlre using.

Re-associating with the .PP2 extension now prompts before happening if it's already associated with something else.

Changed WhoIS parsing to better parse new Internic output. Also updated to better work under Windows 2000.

Changed lower "time line graph" so that dropped packets don't automatically make the bar full height - if some good samples are included in that single-pixel time period, then the bar is the correct height for the good samples.

Entering an IP address (as opposed to a name) now starts tracing immediately (before the IP is resolved into a name). The name shows as (resolving) until the request is complete.

Misc. bug fixes including Alert system e-mail fix, high rate data loss, some settings not saving on exit, registration routines work better on NT if you don't have admin access, restoring from tray refreshes the timeline graph.

2000-01-25 After some problems with CIHost, we've moved to a new home at the Pair networks. So far, their staff has been very helpful - and there's a whole bunch of documentation on how to set things up. Two thumbs up for Pair so far.

2000-01-03 In an attempt to improve on areas where help is needed, I've contracted with someone (Jeff Murri) to help out in a few areas, namely: marketing, sales, and web design. He's just getting started, so don't expect to see any drastic changes too soon, but this will hopefully get some good stuff going on here. He's also making sure we get a new release out soon. You can contact him at jeff@nessoft.com. Welcome aboard, Jeff!

1999-02-27 There are now public support forums open to ask questions or post suggestions. Messages posted here are automatically sent to support, so response times should be the same as with directly e-mailing support.

Hopefully, this will enable some information sharing - and allow people to have their questions answered before they even ask .

This version is *mostly* a bug fix version. It includes the following changes:

Bugs Fixed

Fixed case sensitivity on registration code bug.Fixed occasional access violation when tracingFixed occasional lockup under Win95Fixed so DNS name doesn't ever return your own computer's name when a hop times out.Fixed so DNS lookups always happens - even if the first hop times out.Fixed the alert system so it works correctly now. Alert system is much more reliable.Fixed the alert system so more than one alert can be tied to any IP addressFixed problem where saving a sample set would sometimes not work (when there was no DNS name).Minor changes to registration code system.Fixed "Sample Index too High" error when exporting to text file.

New Features

Export to text file now allows exporting with the samples in rows rather than columns (to overcome Excel's 255 column limit).